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Should I defret this?

Discussion in 'Basses [BG]' started by fufu, Jul 15, 2003.

  1. Jul 15, 2003 #1
    fufu

    fufu

    Aug 18, 2002
    Hey, I'm thinking of de-fretting a Fender Squire P-Bass by Affinity.. It's basically a piece of crap, the tone is horrible and I'm going to get a new bass soon anyway..

    Some people I knew told me it would sound like complete #@%&.. I wouldn't be surprised, because it already is...:D :D And I really don't know what tone I'm looking for as long as it isn't very rough or metal-y.

    Either way, any opinions on this subject? I could probably get a DIY site for this, my only problem would be what the tone would be like. (I'm asking because making a P-bass sound more like a J is a very awkward thing to do.)
     
  2. Jul 15, 2003 #2
    aleyman

    aleyman Guest

    Nov 1, 2002
    PA
    Be sure to tell me how it goes, I want to do the same thing sometime on the same bass...
     
  3. Jul 15, 2003 #3
    BillyB_from_LZ

    BillyB_from_LZ

    Sep 7, 2000
    Chicago
    If you really hate the bass, why ruin it. Sell it and put the money into your next instrument.

    What don't you like about the tone on your Affinity? Perhaps a string change would help. You could do the pickup change/bridge change thing but if you really hate it, you'd be throwing good money after bad.

    I defretted my Squier P Special 5. I really liked the bass as a fretted instrument...wide thin neck, solid bridge, nice tone and sustain. I like it as well or better as a fretless.

    Good luck!!!
     
  4. Jul 15, 2003 #4
    DigMe

    DigMe

    Aug 10, 2002
    Waco, TX
    I'm here to tell you that the tone won't get any better when you defret. I have an old Ibanez TR50 that I defretted. It had mediocre tone to begin with and it still does. However, when I played it through my Aguilar DB920 outboard preamp it sounded pretty fat and nice. You could do something like that and it might help. I pretty much did that so I could learn to play fretless and see if I might want to buy a nicer fretless in the future. I think it was a good move on my part and I don't regret it. I just wish that I didn't have to sell my DB920 a while back! I only really use the fretless in my home though so it wasn't that big of a deal.

    If you're interested I defretted using the soldering iron heating method to defret. Then I filled in the fret slots with wood filler and covered the fretboard with 4 coats of tung oil after much sanding. I then did some more sanding after the oil dried. Came out pretty nicely.

    brad cook
     
  5. Jul 15, 2003 #5
    fufu

    fufu

    Aug 18, 2002
    Well I'm not sincerely aiming to ruin the instrument. But if you think so, then thanks for the opinion.. :)

    Oh and also, it's not the strings. I'm already using Dean Markleys which I think have an nice sound. But when it all comes together, it isn't very appealing.
     
  6. Jul 16, 2003 #6
    Ben Mishler

    Ben Mishler

    Jan 22, 2003
    San Jose
    If you don't play the instrument anymore, it really couldn't hurt, unless you are planning on selling it, and doing a poor job of defretting.